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As part of a commendable push to increase driver awareness of cyclists, TfL have released this ad. For those of you that can’t be bothered to watch it, it’s a film which asks you to count the number of times a ball is thrown, but then turns out to be a wild-life programme. Or something. I wasn’t paying attention.

Seriously, the slogan is: it’s easy to miss something you’re not looking out for. This refers to cyclists. The ad is obviously aimed at drivers.

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And guess what? It turns out that the oh, so clever ad is a rip-off. According to Carlton Reid over at bikebiz (required reading for serious students of cycling, by the way), it’s really the work of a Professor at the University of Illinois. Shamelessly plagiarised by WCRS for the TfL campaign.

It’s this kind of invention and ingenuity that has made British advertising the envy of the world.

if I saw a moon walking bear i’d probably hit it and take out the ball at the same time.
I am such a klutz

Hmmm. very clever, it really shocked me, no doubt the creatives are slapping each others backs, the agency which produced the ad is keenly working away on the stats of how it’s changed public opinion, so that they can sell more stuff like that, but can someone tell me how this relates to motorists hitting cyclists?….after watching it I just thought about dancing bears and basketball…it won’t change anyones behaviour…money wasted.

since it is aimed at precisely those motorists that don’t take an active stance of consideration towards cyclists, it seems logical to try to capture their attention in another way.

i think that had they used the cycling theme more obviously from the beginning, they most likely would have been preaching to the converted: as in, those segments of society (motorists, peds & cyclists) who already care about the safety of cyclists and are aware of, and interested in, cycling related issues.

this way they can potentially attract a wider range of people through the medium of humour.

According to the Carlton Reid article this episode of plagiarism has led to advertising professionals “Debating ethics”. Maybe they should video the conversation and see if their ethics are any easier to spot than a dancing bear.